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Publications

Recent and Forthcoming Books:

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Ordinary Heroes

coming soon!

Click on the book cover for purchasing options.

Karen's books explore the past to provide insights and inspiration for a better future.

Her books include: One in Christ: Chicago Catholics and the Quest for Interracial Justice (Oxford, 2018), Understanding and Teaching Religion in US History (co-edited with Jonathan Yeager, U Wisconsin Press, 2024), and Ordinary Heroes: How Studying the Past Can Help Us Move Past Racial Divides (InterVarsity Press Academic, 2025)

Karen is a contributer to the following books: 

Peer Reviewed Articles and Book Chapters:

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Johnson, Karen J. “Response to ‘Surprise: Roman Catholics as Lewis’s First and Most Appreciative Readers.’” In C.S. Lewis in America: Readings and Reception, 1935-1947 by Mark Noll,” 35-48. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press Academic, 2023.

 

Johnson, Karen J. “A Pedagogy of Healing.” In Lament and Justice in African American History, ed. Trisha Posey. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2023.

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Johnson, Karen J. “Talking About Religion and Race in the Classroom.” In
Understanding and Teaching Religion in U.S. History, ed. Karen J. Johnson and
Jonathan Yeager. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, forthcoming 2024.

 

Johnson, Karen J. “To Believe or Not to Believe? Using Religious Sources to Teach Historical Thinking.” Fides et Historia 52 (1), 2020.


Johnson, Karen J. “Using Lament in the History Classroom to Engage the History of Race in America.” Fides et Historia 50 (2), 2018: 114-123.


Johnson, Karen J. “Shaping Affections: Remembering Our Racial Pasts and
Institutional Lament.” Christian Scholar’s Review 67 (4), 2018: 445-454.


Johnson, Karen J. “Another Long Civil Rights Movement: How Catholic Interracialists Used the Resources of Their Faith to Tear Down Racial Hierarchies.” American Catholic Studies 126 (4), 2015: 1-27.


Johnson, Karen J. “Beyond Parish Boundaries: Black Catholics and the Quest for
Racial Justice.” Religion & American Culture 25 (2), 2015: 264-300.


Johnson, Karen J. “Healing the Mystical Body: Catholic Attempts to Overcome the Racial Divide in the Depression and World War II.” In Christians and the Color Line: Race and Religion after Divided by Faith, ed. J. Russell Hawkins and Phillip Luke Sinitiere. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.

Other Publications and Blogs:

Johnson, Karen J. “Place Matters: The Vocation of Where We Live and How We Live There.” (in progress).

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Johnson, Karen. “The Postures of Lament in the Classroom,” Christian Scholar’s Review Blog, March 30, 2022.

 

Johnson, Karen. “Let Justice Roll Down,” Conference on Faith and History Devotional, Baylor University Press, 2020.

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Johnson, Karen. “Engaging Empathy, Disgust, and Lament,” The Anxious Bench, 20 November 2018, www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiousbench/2018/11/engaging-empathy-disgust-lament/.

 

Religion in American History Blog (http://usreligion.blogspot.com). I wrote a bi-monthly post from 2013 2018. At the time, the blog had over 500 hits/day, 1200 Facebook friends, and 800 followers on Twitter.

 

Johnson, Karen. “Wrestling On and Remembering American Christians’ Racial Past,” In Wrestle On, Jacob, ed. Jill Baumgaertner, 41-45. Wheaton, IL: Wheaton College, 2017.

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Johnson, Karen J. “African Americans” and “Religion” in American Centuries: The Ideas, Issues, and Trends that Made U.S. History: Volume 5, The Twentieth Century, ed. Robert D. Johnston, (New York: Facts on File, 2011).

 

Johnson, Karen J. “African Americans,” in Encyclopedia of U.S. Political History, Volume 4, 1878-1920, ed. Robert D. Johnston (Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Press, 2010).

 

Johnson, Karen J. “Women and AIDS,” in American Women’s History: An Encyclopedia edited by Hasia Diner (New York: Facts on File, 2012).

Book Reviews:

Johnson, Karen J. “Review of Charles Lindbergh: A Religious Biography of America’s Most Infamous Pilot, by Christopher Gerhz.” Fides et Historia 55 (1), 2023.


Johnson, Karen J. “Review of Blood and Faith: Christianity in White American Nationalism, by Damon T. Berry.” Fides et Historia 50 (2), 2018: 196-198.


Johnson, Karen J. “Review of Authentically Black and Truly Catholic: The Rise of Black Catholicism in the Great Migration, by Matthew Cressler.” Review of Religious Research 60 (December 2018): 589-591.

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Johnson, Karen J. “Review of Faith in Black Power: Religion, Race and Resistance in Cairo, Illinois, by Kerry Pimblott.” Church History 87 (3), 2018: 956.


Johnson, Karen J. “Review of Crossing Parish Boundaries: Race, Sports, and Catholic Youth in Chicago, 1914–1954, by Timothy B. Neary.” Journal of Illinois History 18 (2018): 224–25.


Johnson, Karen J. "Review of Salvation with a Smile: Joel Osteen, Lakewood Church and American Christianity, by Phillip Luke Sinitier." Sociology of Religion Journal (2017): 446-447.


Johnson, Karen J. "Review of Lincoln Rice, Healing the Racial Divide: A Catholic Racial Justice Framework Inspired by Dr. Arthur Falls." American Catholic Studies 126 (4) 2015: 96-98.

 

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